Application Process
- You may apply to the Teacher Certification Program at any time after you have been accepted to CWU and have 45 graded quarter credits. We encourage you to apply as early as you are interested to begin receiving communications and support.
- If you have attended colleges or universities other than CWU, we ask that you attach an unofficial transcript to the end of your application. These transcripts are independent of transcripts sent for university application purposes. Please title LASTNAME_Transcripts. This allows us to identify any academic pre-requisite courses earlier than they may be processed through CWU.
- If you took the SAT or ACT and did not send the scores to CWU then we request your full score report be attached to the application. This optional attachment, allows us to fully evaluate your application for admittance.
- After your application has been processed you will get an e-mail informing you of your program admittance status and missing requirements if applicable. Any missing items with additional instructions will remain on your To-Do list in MyCWU until you have met that requirement.
- Updates to program admittance status happen several times during a quarter.
- Basic skills test results are updated as we recieve scores from Pearson.
- If you have a grade change mid quarter you can e-mail teachercertification@cwu.edu after it appears on your transcript to have your program GPA re-evaluated.
- At the end of every quarter, the Teacher Certification Program completes a full review of admittance status after grades have posted.
Apply to Teacher Certification Program
Requirements for Full Admission to the Teacher Certification Program
- Earned 45 quarter credits
Or 30 semester credits on a transfer transcript.
- 3.0 for overall CWU/transfer cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) OR the last 45 graded quarter credits
- Whole terms will be used which may exceed 45 quarter credits.
- You can find your CWU/Transfer GPA in your AR Report
- None of the GPAs listed in your AR Report labeled as last 45 credits are used as your program GPA. We do not know how those are calculated.
- Academic Course Pre-Requisites
You must pass one course from each area. You can check your AR/CAPS Report in MyCWU to see if you have met that requirement. If you have an AA/DTA your transfer credit report or unofficial transcripts submitted with your application will be evaluated based for the specific courses. It is uncommon, but your DTA may not cover the specific list of courses allowed in either of these general education requirements. Click on the link below for the current Course Catalog.
If you would like to look for courses that may transfer from other institutions, the Office of the Registrar has resources to assist you. The Teacher Certification Program will officially verify this record.
If your Academic Writing 1 and/or Quantitative Reasoning course grades are a C or higher this may also help you meet the Basic Skills Requirements below
- Basic Skills Tests for Reading, Writing and Math
Basic Skills Requirement- Washington requires a test attempt for reading, writing and math. Teacher Certification Program at CWU then is allowed to have our own requirements above that minimum standard.
You may mix and match any combination of SAT/ACT/WEST-B test attempts to meet that requirement or other approved equivalent tests. Test attempts for each area are still required if you meet the Basic Skills Requirement by Option 2 or Option 3.
Options to meet Basic Skills Requirement Reading Writing Math Option 1- Test only SAT 500 (through 3/4/2016)
27 (beginning 3/5/2016)
490 (through 3/4/2016)
28 (beginning 3/5/2016)
Did not exist before 2006
515 (through 3/4/2016)
27.5 (beginning 3/5/2016)
ACT 22 8 (through 8/31/2015)
23 (9/2015-8/2016)
8 (beginning 9/1/2016)
22 WEST-B 235+ 235+ 235+ Option 2- Test attempts and General Education courses you must still attempt an SAT/ACT/WEST-B reading, writing and math test before using coursework. Academic Writing 1
Pass course with a C or Higher
Academic Writing 1
Pass course with a C or Higher
Quantitative Reasoning
Pass requirement with a C or Higher
Option 3- Test attempts and alternative courses you must still attempt an SAT/ACT/WEST-B reading, writing and math test before using coursework. One of the following:
--EDLT 289 (2 credits)
--Retake Academic Writing 1**One of the following:
--ENG 289 (2 credits)
--EDBL 289 (2 credits)
--Retake Academic Writing 1**One of the following:
--MATH 164 (5 credits)
--MATH 226 (4 credits)
--Retake Quantitative Reasoning****Any courses used for Option 2 or Option 3 to meet the Basic Skills Requirement must be passed with a C or higher Help reading the Basic Skills Table:
Option 1: You must attempt a test for each subject and meet the required score to meet the Basic Skills Requirement in that subject.
Option 2: If your test scores are not high enough, then your grades in Academic Writing 1 and/or Quantitative Reasoning need to be a C or higher meet the Basic Skills Requirement in that subject.
Option 3: If you have still not met the Basic Skills Requirement after evaluating your test scores and course grades you may use the course options.
You are also able to mix and match any of the above options! EX: You can meet Reading with Option 1, Math with Option 2 and Writing with Option 3.
If you can locate your previous test results, attaching them to your application would be appreciated. Attaching your score reports is not an application requirement. If you have score reports to attach, please title them LASTNAME_testscores. You may have luck finding your score reports if you follow the links below:
WEST-B scores
- Register for WEST-B
- Log in to find your WEST-B scores
SAT scores
- Log in to find your SAT scores
ACT scores
- Log in to find your ACT scores
Full Admittance Status
- Full Admittance Status will be award to applicants that meet all program requirements.
- Full Admittance Status is an academic pre-requisite for later education courses. You need to contact the department that offers the course you are enrolling in if you have difficulties.
Conditional Admittance Status
- Conditional Admittance Status may be awarded if GPA is between 2.8 and 3.0 and/or you are missing any of the admission requirements
- Gives you the opportunity to enroll in early education courses.
- You are on the program roster and you will not have to re-apply to the Teacher Certification Program if less than two years in conditional status.
- Must be fully admitted before you are cleared for Student Teaching
- It is your responsibility to contact the Teacher Certification Program when you have met additional requirements. You can look at your "to-do" list in MyCWU for missing requirements including having your GPA recalculated. Please give the Teacher Certification Program enough notice so that your GPA can be recalculated in time for course registration as the recalculation of your GPA takes time.
Denied Admittance Status
- Denied Admittance Status will be awarded if GPA is below 2.8
- Gives you the opportunity to enroll in early education courses.
- You are on the program roster and you will not have to re-apply to the Teacher Certification Program if less than two years in denied status.
- Must be fully admitted before you are cleared for Student Teaching
- It is your responsibility to contact the Teacher Certification Program when you have met additional requirements. You can look at your "to-do" list in MyCWU for missing requirements including having your GPA recalculated. Please give the Teacher Certification Program enough notice so that your GPA can be recalculated in time for course registration as the recalculation of your GPA takes time.
Check our our FAQs section about Admittance Status
This page contains links to websites outside of www.cwu.edu. The views and opinions expressed on unofficial pages of Central Washington University faculty, staff or students are strictly those of the page authors. The content of such pages has not been reviewed or approved by Central Washington University.
Updated 5/19/2022